The launch of the new presidential account last month prompted
a flurry of snarky postings from other users under the hashtag
#PresidentTweets. Praveen J, for instance, tweeted that the president had "unlocked
the Executive Power Ranger badge, bravo, you sly devil you!" So far, the president's own account is filled with bland official announcements and a chiding reminder to journalists:

While Groundviews
has some fun, its posting raises serious issues as well: "Though there is no
way whatsoever of accurately foretelling how and to what ends the government
will leverage its increasingly sophisticated use of new media, several obvious
challenges arise as a consequence for dissent groups and individuals, including
independent Web-based media and journalists." That term "independent Web-based
media" pretty much describes what little is left of independent media in Sri
Lanka--and those sites regularly come under physical and digital attack.

The not-so-funny point being made: "The landscape for online
output of critical dissent is going to get more challenging than it has ever
been in Sri Lanka." CPJ shares that concern.

Still, Sri Lanka puts its international stature at risk with
its hostility to independent viewpoints. Later this year, Sri Lanka is scheduled
to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. An editorial in Ceylon Today, a daily that strives to
maintain its independence, pointed out that Commonwealth Secretary General
Kamalesh Sharma is meeting with the government and looking at political conditions
ahead the meeting. Some Commonwealth members have expressed growing unhappiness
that CHOGM will meet in Sri Lanka, where, as Ceylon Today's lead editorial points
out:

It will take a great deal of
convincing by the government authorities to make Sharma believe that this
paradise isle, one of the founding members of the Commonwealth, is still
adhering to the shared values of the Commonwealth: Democracy, separation of
power, human rights and the rule of law.

Sadly, the behavior of the
government is shifting towards the polar opposite of those hallowed principles,
which have been enshrined in the Commonwealth Declaration of 1949, and
reaffirmed in subsequent declarations in Singapore in 1971 and Harare in 1991.
The violation of those core values resulted in Zimbabwe, where the 1991
declaration was adopted, being suspended from the Commonwealth in 2002, after
the Government of President Mugabe rigged the presidential election.

Bob Dietz, coordinator of CPJ’s Asia Program, has reported across the continent for news outlets such as CNN and Asiaweek. He has led numerous CPJ missions, including ones to Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Follow him on Twitter @cpjasia and Facebook @ CPJ Asia Desk.